Sunday, March 12, 2006

Latkes and Camels

We love home fries for breakfast. Little chunks of potato fried in oil and butter with salt, pepper, and paprika. The problem is that you need to cook the potatoes the night before and leave them in the fridge overnight. Otherwise, the moisture tends to make them boil instead of fry. Not very convenient.

In the past I have tried making hash browns. Shred potatoes, squeeze and drain, and pan fry them. This too gives an odd result. I'm not exactly sure why.

So when a friend was recently talking about latkes, I was eager to try them. Shredded potatoes, egg, flour, salt, and pepper. Easy to make, and no precooking. Incredible! This was instantly a new favorite.

While eating our breakfast, we played Through the Desert. I decided to ignore caravan lengths completely, and go for palm trees, denying my opponent access wherever I could. I was able to get most of my caravans to 2 or 3 palm trees each, racking up a huge pile of 5-point markers as well as many water holes. I cut off many enemy caravans successfully.

In the process of trying to reach palm trees, however, my opponent made some very nice partial enclosures. I was constantly trying to evaluate if I should end the game early to prevent all the enclosures from completing, but that would have cost me points as well. I enjoy the game more with less AP, so I don't calculate everything out. I felt that I was doing fine, so I pressed on.

In the end my opponent got 3 of the 5 caravans, 3 enclosures for about 32 points (plus all the water holes within). Me 115, her 136. Great game, and great food.

5 Comments:

We've never cooked latkes, but they sound delicious. We have prepared hash browns, but not for many years. Since we love potatoes, in almost any form, we will have to try latkes.

That was an interesting game of TtD. We always have five players, and I think it is more difficult to plan a strategy with that many players. The board gets crowded quickly, and each turn requires more effort to just select the best possible move, rather than following a true strategy. It is a neat game, though. While we were playing another game on Saturday, our grandson asked whether he could get out TtD and just play with the camels. He set them up in color groups on the table, with the riders on camels in front of each group. It looked like a scene from a desert adventure or war movie, with armies on camelback, or just large, well-organized herds of camels. There really is something fascinating about those pastel camels!